Dolphin Explorer Chronicles

10,000 ISLAND DOLPHIN PROJECT AND THE DOLPHIN EXPLORER

Each day at 9:00 a.m. and again at 1:00 p.m. the Dolphin Explorer departs from the Marco River Marina to conduct a three-hour survey of the local population of bottlenose dolphins.  The public is invited to join our survey team of naturalists and biologists, learn about and participate in the work of the 10,000 Island Dolphin Project, observe dolphins in their natural habitat and view a magnificent esturary dominated by mangroves and rich in wading birds, Osprey, Manatee and much more.

Visit the DOLPHIN EXPLORER WEBSITE

To reach Sea Excursions "Home of the Dolphin Explorer" for reservations or information  call (239) 642-6899

or e-mail  dolphin@seaexcursions.com

Make reservation online:  ZERVE ONLINE RESERVATIONS

 

To learn about the dolphins in our survey area visit THE 10,000 ISLAND DOLPHIN STUDY

 

SUCCESS! Seymour captured, treated and released.

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

Seymour getting some Oxygen                                                                                  photo: Kent Morse

On Friday, March 9 the saga that began nearly four months ago when our naturalist James Liviccari first photographed Seymour's entanglement injury came to a successful conclusion.  At 11:45 a.m. , as a rescue teams scoured a wide area, a passenger aboard the Dolphin Explorer spotted a dolphin inside the entrance to Collier Bay.  Within a few seconds, our naturalist James Livaccari made the identification and Captain Chris Desmond called in the sighting and followed Seymour until the rescue team arrived.  Seymour was captured, treated for his (it's confirmed: Seymour is a male) injuries and released back into his home range.  It was an extraordinary day. Stay tuned for a full report with photos and video of the rescue.  And check out previous posts to learn of the months long effort to determine Seymour's range.

Seymour's new look - satellite tag to track post release movement                            photo: Kent Morse

 

Seymour gets some shade as the Vets work to remove line from the tail                     photo: Kent Morse

 
Rescue leader Steve Mcculloch and net setter Larry Fulford                                                photo: Kent Morse

With a little help from our friends...

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

The last three months of intensive effort have produced a clearer picture of Seymour's range and daily movements, information that will be useful when the Marine Mammal Stranding Network goes into action on his behalf.  

Crucial to that success has been the help of the local community.  In order to fill out the picture of this dolphin's habits we have tried to put as many eyes on the water as possible.  On Several occasions The Rose Marco River Marina, where the Dolphin Explorer has its home, has made rental boats available to us at no cost so that we could have two or three boats out searching at the same time.  We had to cover a lot of water to eventually narrow the search area and this generosity on their part was a huge help.  The Marina also displayed our wanted poster of Seymour and on several occasions this produced valuable information.

On Monday, February 20th Captain Shannon Monahan who skippers one of the two sailing catamarans for the Marriot on Marco Island spotted Seymour and radioed the Marina. They immediately passed the information on to us.   It was fortuitous timing because James Livaccari and I were both at the dock and were able to hop in a gheenoe I recently purchased to extend our survey work and act on her information.  Within twenty minutes we were able to pick up the trail and conduct a five hour follow that added crucial information on Seymour's range.  Here is a file Download Feb.20Seymour that updates the previous Google Earth map with information we were able to acquire thanks to Shannon. 

Dave Strickland, one of our captains, arrived from Naples in the Miss D to help.  The addition of a second boat to the effort proved crucial - when James and I lost track of Seymour (easier than you might expect - especially as he moved in and out of canals and occasionally mixed with other dolphins) Dave would call to say he had him in his sights.  At one point he was milling around with a mother and her calf and sub-adult and these dolphins began travelling away from the area.  We followed thinking Seymour was with them, but once we caught up with them it was clear a fourth dolphin had joined this family's outing; Dave spotted Seymour back where we began.

Then, today, the Dock Master at the Esplanade, who also had one of our wanted posters, called me to say that his assistant had a definite sighting of Seymour in Smokehouse Bay - another piece of the puzzle and an important one, as our focus had shifted to the area of Sunday's follow.

Natalie Strom produced a nice article for The Coastal Breeze publication and I received a sighting call from a citizen as a result of that article.

A huge thanks to members of the local community for all their help.  And not just the local community - thanks also to the kids at Crafton Elementary School in Pittsburgh who have raised funds to help Seymour's rehabilitation.

Desperately Seeking Seymour

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

Since my last update we have intensified our efforts to determine Seymour's movement patterns in preparation for his (or her) eventual rescue.  That a rescue attempt organized by The National Marine Fisheries Service will occur some time in the next month is all but certain - the success of that rescue will, of course, depend on finding the animal on the day the folks from the Marine Mammal Stranding Network move into action.

To that end we have attempted two focal follows of Seymour, the first such attempts at this type of observation for the 10,000 Island Dolphin Project.

Up until now our approach has been simply to document sightings of dolphins along a survey route or transect, stopping just long enough to collect photos and data before moving on to the next sighting.  In this manner we can amass data sufficient to document the individuals that compose the population, learn about the association patterns of individual dolphins and get a sense of their range over time.

Concern that we not become a nuisance to these animals or alter their behavior with our presence dictates that we keep these encounters as brief as possible.  Most guidelines for ethical marine mammal observation mandate that the vessel not spend more than thirty minutes with a particular group of dolphins; the average duration of our sightings is probably under ten minutes and sometimes we can accomplish our objectives in just a few minutes.

Given the life and death nature of Seymour's predicament, we have attempted on two occasions to stay within sight of him for an extended period of time that we might gain a more nuanced  picture of his movements and determine where he goes when not on our usual survey route.  The problem with Seymour is that while we see him regularly, often a week or more will pass between sightings and that is not good enough when contemplating a rescue.  According to Blair Maise Regional Coordinator for The Marine Mammal Stranding Network for NMFS , they are experiencing a record number or entanglements and their resources are stretched thin.  Those resources will be committed only when a reasonable chance of success exists.

Below is a screen shot from Google Earth showing the results of these two follow attempts and all sightings of Seymour in the last year or so. To view this on Google Earth and get access to the data relevant to the sightings, download this link.   Download SeymourSFH  

Large red targets show Seymour sightings in the last two months

Smaller green targets show sightings for the all 2011

The white line represents a follow of Seymour conducted by Chris Desmond, James Livacarri and Kristin Froehlich Monday, February 6; the yellow line represents a follow conducted by Kent Morse and Dave Strickland on January 15.

Our take from this history is that Seymour's likely location, when not in our usual survey route, is amongst the docks and canals of Marco Island seen here.  He spent much of his time as a calf along the sea wall on the north side of the Isles of Capri and while he no longer visits that spot, he may be particular comfortable with feeding along these barriers.  If anyone happens to spot Seymour along any of these docks let us know and of course if you spot Seymour or any other injured marine mammal the first call should be to The Marine Mammal Stranding Network at 1-888-404-FWCC.

 

 

 

Seymour finally resighted

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Study

Despite extra effort to discover his location we had not sighted Seymour in over a month and we were beginning to despair of finding him again, an obvious prerequisite to scheduling the rescue that had been authorized by the National Marine Fisheries Service.  Then, on the morning of December 12, no sooner had we left the marina when we spotted five dolphins socializing in Factory Bay.  Seymour  was among this group of sub-adults that also included Mamawane, Ellie May, Orange and Ripple.  

He participated in the socializing but at times was apart from the group a bit raising and slapping his tail stock and fluke in the same manner that had originally alerted us to his injury.  

We immediately contacted Blair Mase, a scientist at NOAA and Coordinator of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.  Later we passed on new photos of the injury.  Blair is scheduling a rescue that, depending on weather and availability of team members will most likely take place before the end of January.  Toward that end we are going to put extra boats and time on the water in the days to come in hopes of discovering where Seymour tends to go when outside the narrow confines of our normal survey route.  This will involve a focal follow which differs from our usual approach in that an attempt will be made to keep Seymour in sight and track his movement over as long a period of time as possible.

The point of this effort is to give the rescue team as much insight as possible as to the likely whereabouts of Seymour and increase the chances of finding him once all the resources have been assembled and put into motion.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, these rescues are complicated logistically (and in so many other ways) and in the past have involved as many as 25 individuals and six vessels.  It would be a shame  - to say the least - if an effort of this scope and importance foundered for want of finding the injured animal. 

Second injured dolphin discovered

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

On December 28, as the Dolphin Explorer was returning to the dock from its morning trip we paused for one more sighting.  This time something didn't appear right about one of the dolphins.  Rangle, a dolphin we first identified in 2006 was milling around and staying at the surface rather more than is normal, as her two year old calf swam nearby.  

At first glance, she appeared to have something on her head, but after a second sighting during the afternoon trip and a closer look at photos, it became obvious that she had sustained a rather gruesome injury to her head, specifically to a bulbous structure called the melon that projects outward from the skull.

 Rangle 12-28-2011                                                                                                                                     Photo: Kent Morse

As with Seymour, we reported her condition to Blair Mase, the Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for NOAA.  Blair confirmed that a boater had reported accidentally striking a dolphin and asked that we pass on any photos of the injury.  On December 31, she told me that another boater reported seeing Rangle at Caxambas Pass on the other side of Marco Island and that she did not appear to be doing well.  Blair attempted to get someone with expertise to monitor Rangle but they were not able to be locate her to conduct the assessment at that time.

 No one was terribly optimistic about her chances for survival.  

Because we have a fairly extensive sighting history for Rangle in our database (195 sightings since 2006) we knew that her calf (Mocha) was approximately 2 years and 4 months old.  This is significant because in our experience calves in this area generally stay with their mothers for at least three years and, in the event that Rangle did not survive her wounds, some steps might be taken to insure that this didn't become a double tragedy.

 Almost two weeks passed and all of us feared the worse, when at the outset of our afternoon trip of January 12, we encountered Rangle, her calf and two other dolphins in Factory Bay near the Marco River Marina.  The injury still looked ghastly though perhaps not so much as the first time we saw her and she appeared to be swimming more normally (diving and surfacing rather than staying at the surface.)

 Rangle 1-12-2012                                                                                                                                          Photo: Kent Morse

And this time her calf, rather than simply milling about in the vicinity stayed very near her mother and the two animals coordinated their movements which I saw as a hopeful sign.

 Rangle and Mocha 1-12-2012                                                                                                                      Photo: Kent Morse

Later in the trip we encountered Rangle again.  She,  Mocha and a third dolphin had moved up the Marco River and made the turn into the inter-coastal waterway.

I am not sure what plans, if any, are in the works to intervene on Rangle's behalf but I will report any news in this regard as well as future sightings when they occur. 

Wanted Poster for Seymour

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

Here is the front and back sides of a  'wanted' poster we have created for Seymour.  While an intervention has been authorized, nothing can happen until we nail down Seymour's current location. This poster has been distributed to some local fisherman and the dockmaster at the Esplanade overlooking Smokehouse Bay where Seymour was seen a few weeks ago.  Hopefully we can get wider distribution of these images to Marco residents who may spot this dolphin from shore near a dock or seawall.

And the back...

 

 

 

Crafton Elementary School to the Rescue!

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Project

Seymour has some very good friends in far away places. The students of Susan Kosko's 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade reading classes at Crafton Elementary School in Pittsburgh, PA are the first in the nation to come to Seymour's aid in his time of need.  Within days of hearing about Seymour's injury, these fine young people moved into action and before the week was out had already raised more than one hundred dollars towards Seymour's rescue and rehabilitation.

Seymour will need all the help he can get: one dolphin named Ginger that was cared for at the Mote Dolphin and Whale Hospital ate nearly 4000 live pinfish during her stay - that's 35 pinfish fed five times a day at about $1.00 a pinfish.  Also there usually isn't much funding from official sources for rescues - most of those involved volunteer their time and expertise.

The story of how a dolphin named Seymour found such good friends at an elementary school in Pennsylvania starts six years ago.  It was then that Chris Desmond partnered with Rocky Beaudry of Sea Excursions to begin the 10,000 Island Dolphin Project, an eco-tour that would involve the public in the effort to document the local population of bottlenose dolphins using a photo identification technique that folks at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program had developed forty years before and used to such good effect in Sarasota Bay.  

On the first trip of the newly christened M/V Dolphin Explorer a young calf was seen foraging in shallow water with its mother.  We named it Seymour because in the days and months to come we would see it more often than any other dolphin.

Five years later, Seymour's mother has had two more calves, Seymour is on his own and the Dolphin Project is thriving when a remarkable teacher named Susan Kosovo joins us for a survey trip while vacationing on Marco Island.  Since that trip , Susan and Chris stayed in touch and developed a way for her students, hundreds of miles away in land locked Pennsylvania,  to participate in the dolphin project. Available internet technologies like Skype and Ipads  bring them on our boat and us into their classroom.  

Using Skype, our biologist and naturalist James Livacarri calls them up from the boat several times a week and they have a conversation about some aspect of the local bottlenose dolphins and their habitat. Sometimes the kids get to see the dolphins in action.  Susan develops lesson plans, activities and reading matierials related to the talks.  Across town, Laurie Zimmerman at Carnagie Elementary does the same thing with her 3rd and 4th grade classes.  Both classes named dolphins born this year after their schools.  

During one recent discussion James talked to the students about human impacts on bottlenose dolphins and the dangers of feeding dolphins and monofilament line and other litter in their habitat. He used Seymour's injury as an example of the some of the dangers that dolphins face.

And then something remarkable and remakably hopeful happened: the students got to work on doing what they could to save this dolphin.  Within a few days, these kids who are not much older than Seymour, proudly announced to James that they had raised over a hundred dollars to help in the rescue and rehabilitation of Seymour.  Their teacher Susan is working with local Pizza Hut to widen the effort.  Their spirit has inspired us on the Dolphin Explorer to begin a fund raising effort in our area to help Seymour.  

Who says kids can't make a difference?

 

National Marine Fisheries Service Approve Intervention to Save Seymour

Well that didn't take long.  I e-mailed Blair Mase of the National Marine Fisheries Service to tell her about recent sighting of Seymour by individuals who had contacted us and she wrote back right away to tell me that she too had now received reports about Seymour from others and the NMFS had approved an intervention and would be scheduling a rescue in the next couple of weeks.  

Wow.  

It looks like something extraordinary is going to happen, is indeed already happening: human beings are moving into action to try to make things right for this magnificent animal that we inadvertantly put in harms way.  I find this incredibly hopeful.

Seymour Update: help may be on the way

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

The effort to assess whether Seymour's entanglement and associated injuries are life threatening and require human intervention has begun.  

Since my last post, I e-mailed Kim-Bassos Hull, a Research Associate at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, and described Seymour's injuries and recent sighting history.  Kim has worked for years on research and education efforts related to issues of the human impact on bottlenose dolphins such as feeding and entanglement in fishing line.  At a recent conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Tampa, Florida she gave a presentation on this topic; "Entanglement Hotspots Along The Florida Coastline: A Need for Outreach and Action."  As part of her efforts she helped develop and distributes this flyer on dolphin friendly fishing tips.

Kim forwarded this information to Randy Wells, Director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Project, thus beginning the formal process of evaluating Seymour's  situation and the neccesity and feasibility of intervening on this dolphin's behalf.

Dr. Wells then forwarded this information to Blair Mase of the National Marine Fisheries Service. This is an important first step as it it the NMFS whose permission is required to conduct a rescue of a marine mammal.  As Dr. Wells explained in a 2008 essay,

             "NOAA’s Fisheries Service (NMFS) is charged under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) with responsibility for reducing deaths and serious injuries of marine mammals from fisheries. NMFS is tasked with determining whether injuries from entanglement in, or ingestion of, commercial fishing gear, or other interactions with humans are likely to lead to mortality."

Should a rescue of Seymour be deemed neccesary and possible it is likely the folks at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program would lead they effort.  They have decades of experience in the capture, treatment and release of dolphins and, should surgery or rehabilitation be neccesary, the Mote Marine Lab and Dolphin Hospital is the likely place where this would occur.

Blair Mase contacted me and ask that we forward any pictures of Seymour's injuries to her.   She explained that the first step that NMFS takes is to distribute the photos to vetenarians who will determine whether the entanglement and injuries are life threatening.

Blair was also interested in whether we could shed any light on Seymour's site fidelity.  This is important because the NMFS will not initiate a rescue or permit a rescue attempt if the animal in question has not been seen in the previous week.  The point here, I think, is that it is a huge effort, requiring the participation of dozens of people to mount a rescue attempt and there is little point in doing so if there is not a high degree of probability of finding the animal.  I provided Blair with a link to our Dolphin Catalogue which documents the details over 200 sightings of Seymour over the past six years.

Those of us who work on the Dolphin Explorer as a part of the Sea Excursion's 10,000 Island Dolphin Project are now in the process of narrowing the search area for Seymour and we have had some success in this regard.  Two passengers aboard the Dolphin Explorer, unprompted, asked us about a dolphin they had seen with an injury to its tail.  Both people had spotted Seymour while visiting the Esplanade on Marco Island and looking out on Smokehouse Bay.  This makes sense because while the Dolphin Explorer does not go that far back on our survey trips, we do look in on adjacent Collier Bay and have recorded recent sightings of Seymour there recently.

We have designed a 'wanted' poster with a profile a Seymour's fin and we are going to distribute this to the dockmaster at the Esplanade and to some of our local fishing charter friends in hopes that we can nail down specifically Seymour's range.  In this way, if NMFS and SSDRP decide to launch a rescue attempt, we will be able to point them in the right direction.

Blair was also interested in the depth of the water in the area as any rescue attempt would require shallow water.  With the exception of the channels, there is plenty of very shallow water in this area.

So until we hear from the vetenarians associated with the NMFS, it is watch and wait.  

 

 

 

Local dolphin needs help

Kent Morse

10,000 Island Dolphin Project

 

We recently observed Seymour, a sub-adult member of the dolphin population centered around Big Marco Pass,  with monofilament fishing line wrapped tightly around the base of its peduncle near the flukes.  The line itself is barely visible but the entire area has a large growth of scar tissue.  It looks like the entanglement occurred some time ago and, while most of the trailing line broke off, the remainder continues to cut deeply into the animal.

During a field survey aboard the Dolphin Explorer on November 26 naturalist James Livaccari observed Seymour repeatedly slapping its tail on the surface of the water.  He was able to get good pictures of the injured area. 

_{Seymour tail- slapping                                        photo:James Livaccari}

_{Seymour with monofilament line near his fluke                       photo:James Livaccari}

More recently we have observed Seymour  socializing with other dolphins and s/he has not appeared to be in obvious distress, but, as these photos attest, the monofilament entanglement continues to be a problematic, potentially life threatening situation.

Seymour was one of the first dolphins we observed when we began conducting surveys in 2006.  At the time s/he was a young calf.  Since then we have logged over 200 sightings of this dolphin.  In 2007 Seymour's mother, Halfway gave birth to a new calf named Simon and at that time Seymour began to navigate life on his own as a sub-adult.  In 2010 Halfway, who spends a lot of time along the sea wall at the Isles of Capri,  gave birth to a third calf, Kaya.  Based on this history we estimate that Seymour is about eight years old.

The question in our minds is what can be done to help this dolphin?  There are options.  Movie goers will immediately think of Winter from 'A Dolphin Tale', who faced with a similar predicament, was rescued and, after surgery to remove the fluke, was fitted with a prosthesis.  

A happier precedent, to my mind, would be the recent rescue of a dolphin calf with a life threatening entanglement by the folks at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. In this case Dr. Randall Wells, director of the SSDRP, lead a team of 35 individuals in six boats.  They were able to capture the calf, remove the line, inject the little guy with a dose of antibiotics and release the animal all in 17 minutes, an extraordinary feat.

This was a best case scenario;  Seymour would almost certainly  require surgery and rehabilitation at the Mote Marine Dolphin and Whale Hospital.

Capturing, treating and releasing a wild dolphin is obviously not an easy undertaking.  Whether something like this can be attempted to help Seymour remains to be seen.  We have reported the situation to the folks at Sarasota Dolphin Research Program  and the Fish and Wildlife Commission and will keep you posted on developments.

And we'll keep a close eye on Seymour as well.